The Lost Child of Time
by LokiHatake
Summary: What if the Doctor wasn't the last Time Lord? What if there had been another? A child, left behind and hidden away by parents who knew what was to come. What then? This is the story of Sigma. Last Child of Time.


Kylar stared at his only friend with something akin to exasperation. Anyone seeing the expression on his face would say he was angry, Tyler knew better. He simply rolled his eyes and tried to figure out what he had done now. The duo had been having a perfectly fine discussion on physics and their relation in arithmetic and science. He tried to think back on what he had done or said and sighed as he realized. He had called the younger boy's ideas stupid, again.  
He couldn't help it!  
Kylar had the most outlandish ideas on how things worked, and when someone tried explaining to him how it was simply impossible he would come back that it had not been disproven. Tyler had about had it, and he would rather the boy just drop it. But... he could not do that to his friend. The boy had stood up for him when they were younger and no one else wanted to be around the freaky kid in glasses. Of course, Kylar had been labeled a freak too.  
Neither male was stupid. In fact, if Kylar didn't cling so tightly to his outlandish claims he would be considered the brighter one. But the scientific, and every other intelligent community, looked down on him for his beliefs and as such considered him crazy and not worth their time.  
"I'm sorry." Kylar stared at him for an agonizing minute before giving a sharp, short nod. Tyler smiled softly, forgiven then. He held back a sigh as Kylar turned on a dime and walked off, hands in his hoodie pocket. If it were anyone else he d go after them. But, he knew that his friend just needed to calm down, he would hunt him down tomorrow if the boy didn't find him first.

Kylar frowned as he walked, it wasn't like he forced his ideas on other people! He just... he knew he was right. He didn t know how, but he knew he was right. Loneliness seemed to press down on him like a weight. It was an old feeling, one that had no source, but existed none-the-less. He d had it from time to time forever. Usually he could ignore it, but times like these... He just felt... abandoned. He turned his head to look at the stars, as always, fascinated.  
His grey-blue eyes studied the glittering orbs so far away with a longing he didn t understand. He scrubbed a hand through his dark red hair with a sigh and kept walking. His hand moved down from his hair to a lump beneath his hoodie, hanging against his chest. He patted it, finding solace in the old hunk of metal. He checked his pocket to make sure he had his wallet and now that it was confirmed decided that perhaps a walk was in order.

Kylar sat down against the wall of the abandoned building he d found. The place was old, but smelled of rain and rust. It was comforting, in a way. Not sure why, just was. He reached up to his neck and pulled at the chain there. He tugged until the watch at the end tumbled out onto his palm. It was warm, surprisingly so for the cool weather. He stared at it, idly tracing the interlocking circles with his thumb, only rarely brushing up against thin lines, and small dots. He bit on his lip before moving his other hand up to rest on the latch.  
In all the time he d carried the watch, not once had he opened it. Wasn t sure it could be opened. Others had tried before, snatching it away and pressing down again and again. Not once did it open. But, somehow, he knew it would open for him. He closed his eyes, reaching for courage, and pressed down. There was a flare of gold beyond his eyelids and then he was consumed in flames.

Sigma opened silver-green eyes to the world around him. They were vacant, filled with pain. Memories surfaced, speaking of distant worlds, of a mother and father who had left him here, sealed him away to protect him. He knew, instinctively, that they no longer existed. He could feel his mind, reaching ever farther in search of a light, a connection that would never be.  
He was alone.  
A scream of utter agony escaped his lips as he found nothing nothing but darkness and a yawning emptiness. The pained, ugly sound tore from his throat in a way that should have been impossible. He curled up in a ball on the ground, only barely noting that he d returned to his original appearance.  
Tears fell down pale cheeks and into shoulder length white-blonde hair. He looked small, thin. Humans would assume he was eight years old, he knew he was nearing forty. Sigma stared at the chameleon arc in his hand and considered sealing himself away, but he knew it was impossible. He didn t know how, he d never finished the Academy, never had the chance. The only thing he had done right was looking into the Time Vortex when he really had been eight. That was why he looked eight. It was a closely guarded secret that Gallifreyans that never looked into the Time Vortex did not regenerate properly, they aged similarly to a Human too.  
With a last scrub at his eyes and forced himself to his feet. He looked down at himself, unhappy with the oversized clothing and kicked off the vastly oversized shoes. He put the fob watch back around his next and pulled up his mental map of London. He turned unerringly towards the nearest store. He would need to get some clothes, then disappear, it wouldn t due for someone to spot a child that didn t age walking around London.

* * *

Sigma kicked out in frustration at the man carrying him. The man, who could only be some kind of soldier, just held on and kept carrying him. They were in an abandoned park and headed towards a fountain. They were several yards from it when the man stopped and fiddled with something on his wrist. The ground suddenly gave way, the strangeness of it causing Sigma to stop struggling. Curiosity piked, he didn t fight as they were lowered into some kind of underground place.  
They were met by a women with a clipboard who signaled for the man to follow. Sigma was carried along until they reached an interrogation room of sorts. It had a table, three chairs, and a rolling table to one side with medical equipment on it. Seeing that they were headed nearer to the medical equipment he immediately kicked out, startling the man into dropping him. He took the momentary surprise and slipped out the door.  
He ran, feet carrying him faster than most kids his age, rounding several corners before coming into a gym area of sorts. It was populated by half a dozen other soldier men and Sigma hesitated momentarily as he looked them over, ignoring as several shifted slightly forward as if to try and grab him if he tried running again.  
Sigma turned to look at the last man, standing in a corner and reared back with a pained hiss of breath. It was like looking directly at the sun. He crumpled to the ground, hands covering his eyes, as if to scrub the image from his mind. There was silence around him but for a single set of footsteps that approached. They stopped, and someone kneeled down before him.  
"Hey, I m Jack. Can you tell me your name? I'm sorry if I did something that hurt you." Sigma swallowed the bile that had risen in his throat to answer.  
"Sigma." He shuddered out a breath. "You are wrong. How are you wrong? Wrong, wrong, wrong..." His voice trailed off into mutters as the man laid a hand on his shoulder.  
"You re from Gallifrey, aren't you." Sigma s eyes snapped open in shock, suppressing his urge to cringe away as he stared at the impossible man before him in stunned awe.  
_How? How did he know of Gallifrey?!_  
The man gave a sad little half-smile and slowly reached down to pick him up. He didn t fight as he was carried away to a place he thought might be the man s quarters. He was set down in the man's bathroom and told to wash up while the man got him new clothes. Sigma stared after the retreating figure for a while before complying.

* * *

It was several months later when Jack Harkness came rushing into their shared family quarters and scooped up the small Gallifreyan and carried him along as they quickly left Torchwood. When he was set down outside he immediately ran alongside his longer-legged friend. He chased the undying male through street after street until they came out near an abandoned park. Sigma blinked at the blue box sitting innocently on the grass.  
"...TARDIS?"  
Jack grinned down at him before jogging over to it, Sigma not far behind. Jack stopped in front of the door to the Police Box and rapped on it until it was opened by a blonde chick. He pushed her backwards, stepping inside with Sigma, dragging the small boy along by a grip on his hoodie, something Sigma had grown fond of wearing.  
The blonde made an indignant noise but Jack ignored her as he all but pounced the slim male standing by the console of the TARDIS.  
"Doctor!" The male only had enough time to look up before he d been yanked into a hug that he quickly separated himself from.  
"Jack! Been a while." He stepped back from the male with a grin, sending an apologetic glance towards the blonde. Said blonde was staring down at Sigma.  
"Did he drag you all the way here? Poor boy. You, whoever you are, take him back to his home!" Jack blinked, staring kind of gob smacked at the irate blonde.  
"I... kinda can't." The Doctor, was that really his name?, turned to look at Jack with a confused expression, glancing between the small boy Jack had dragged into the TARDIS and the man himself. Sigma just ignored them all as he scooted over to the console curiously, he d never really gotten the chance to take a good look at his parents TARDIS. Most of the time, his parents had had him off in his room studying or training when he was on theirs .  
Jack gave an odd little grin to the Doctor.  
"Scan the brat, Doctor."  
"Wha-"  
"Please, just do it." The Doctor frowned before pulling out his Sonic Screwdriver with a hum and moving over to Sigma. Sigma gave a dry look to Jack, ignoring the man's unrepentant grin and turned to face the taller male. It was only as the man knelt before him to scan him that he realized he could sense the man. He blinked, eyes widening slightly as he darted a glance to Jack to find him grinning at him. His eyes snapped back to the man in front of him.  
Cautiously, almost afraid to be proven wrong, he sent out a mental feeler to the male. The man froze as it touched the barrier on his mind, head snapping up and eyes meeting Sigma's. The man held out a shaking hand, seemingly forgetting what he'd just been doing. Sigma placed his smaller hand in the male's. There was a brief stretching feeling in his head before their thoughts fully touched.  
It was like looking into the Vortex all over again. His own, younger mind, was immediately dwarfed by more than a thousand years of memories, experiences, and adventures. His own, meagre, fifty-three years was nothing compared to the Doctor. He would have drowned if the man hadn't wrapped his own conscious around Sigma's, winding himself into it, like Sigma's parents should have been. Time Lord children were never meant to be separated from the Hive Mind until they were capable of keeping themselves separate. Sigma had been too young to learn that.  
When he came back to himself, he was wrapped up in a warm embrace and sitting in the older Time Lord's lap. Said Time Lord was whispering nonsense to him in Gallifreyan, letting him latch onto the babble and center himself in the present rather than the memories brushing against his awareness. With the Doctor having wrapped himself so tightly with Sigma in their -tiny, oh so small, and it hurt to be so small even after going decades with nothing- Hive his memories and Sigma's would drift and merge before returning to their respective owners.  
Sigma made a humming noise in his throat to let the Doctor know that he was aware. The babble tapered off before the male switched to common English.  
"I'm so sorry."  
Sigma tilted his head up to stare at the taller male.  
"It's fine, you have nothing to be forgiven for." And, for the first time since his parents had abandoned him on Earth, he allowed his eyes to take their natural hue. Instead of a normal color they showed a twisting fire resembling the Time Vortex. And by the Doctor's stuttered breathing he knew the male understood.  
Sigma had looked into the Vortex, and It had Looked Back. Sigma was the last living embodiment of the Will of the Vortex. He knew all and nothing, instinctively knew what must come to pass, and he understood the choices that had led to this point. Understood that there was never any choice. Gallifrey had to fall. And the Doctor had to be the one to do it.

**AN: So, what do you think? Should I keep going?**


End file.
